New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is seeking money for damages from those behind the leak of his superannuation details - including two journalists and a top civil servant - according to a new Statement of Claim filed in the Auckland High Court yesterday.
Peters is claiming that his privacy was breached when details of his superannuation overpayments - which he has since repaid - were passed on by the head of the Social Development Ministry Brendan Boyle to Government ministers, and subsequently published by Newshub and Newsroom during the election campaign.
Earlier this month, Peters filed court papers seeking information about who had leaked the details. As well as Boyle, the papers named Newsroom's Tim Murphy and Newshub's Lloyd Burr, and senior National Party MPs including Bill English, Paula Bennett, Steven Joyce, Anne Tolley, former National Party chief of staff Wayne Eagleson and former communications manager Clark Hennessy.
The National Party has refuted any suggestion it had any involvement in the leak.
At an earlier court hearing, Peters' lawyer Brian Henry told the court that the operation had been a political setup designed to damage Peters in the election campaign. The court asked him to file a Statement of Claim to clarify what Peters was alleging.